Justice Wright

CPR E 494

Cumulative Reflection

March 15, 2019

Four Years In The Making

Four years is simultaneously an enormous amount of time and over in the blink of an

eye. That’s how long I’ve spent here studying at Iowa State, and while my first semester still

feels like it was just yesterday, thinking back I really have come so far as an engineer and a

person in those four short years. I entered as a person with a passion for technology, no true

professional coding experience, and an unhealthy dose of imposter syndrome. After wading

through various late-night programming sessions, numerous group projects, and countless lab

hours I emerged with the skills necessary to call myself an engineer, and the knowledge

necessary to help find my place in the world.

Much of the learning I did came outside of lecture halls. Group projects are probably the

single most formative series of projects that shaped my abilities and beliefs. I learned to expose

myself and be considerate of approaches to problems that don’t match my own. I learned how

to work with people in a respectful and professional manner, even if I disagreed with them.

Most importantly, I learned to be open and play off those around me, not against them.

Another great aspect of my Iowa State experience was the ability to incorporate current

happenings into the classroom and vice versa. I took Com S 309 in the middle of the

cryptocurrency boom. With the nature of the class being an open-ended group project, my

group decided to make a mobile application that allowed users to mine as a part of a pool.

While the idea was more novel than profitable, it required much research on our end outside of
class into a rapidly evolving technology. It was by far the most involved I’ve ever been in a

project and the most in sync with the development of the world I’ve ever felt.

Outside of the classroom, the skills I picked up along the way transitioned into even

more learning opportunities. I received an internship at a financial tech platform based out of

Des Moines, almost entirely based on the merit of skills I picked up either working as a student

technician on campus or picked up from my security courses. I was the first person they had

interviewed for the position and was offered the job on the spot. Those skills gave me the base

knowledge needed to continue my education further on the job, where I am now learning

advanced security techniques as well as learning Scala.

While my team here was mostly great, that’s not to say I wouldn’t do some things

differently looking back. Thankfully, the first thing I’d do differently wasn’t an option when I

enrolled here so it doesn’t feel like too big of a missed opportunity, and that is be a

Cybersecurity Engineering major. Security became my supplemental focus area and the field

I’m working in, and I would’ve loved to have this option as a freshman. It makes me happy to

see others will have this opportunity after me, and I’m glad to see this get branched out into its

own discipline.